112 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



a bird not wounded, and in perfect feather, must be procured, i£ possible, 

 for the loss of feathers can seldom be made good ; and where the defi- 

 ciency is great all the skill of the artist will avail him little in his 

 attempt to conceal the defect ; because, in order to hide it, he must 

 contract the ekin, bring down the tipper feathers and shove in the lower 

 ones, which would throw all the surrounding parts into contortion. 



You will also observe that the whole of the skin does not produce 

 feathers, and that it is very tender where the feathers do not grow. The 

 bare parts are admirably formed for expansion about the throat and 

 ttomach, and they fit into the different cavities of the body at the wings, 

 shoulder, rump, and thighs, with wonderful exactness, so that in stuffing 

 the bird, if you make an even rotund surface of the skin, where the 

 cavities existed, in lieu of re-forming them, all symmetry, order, and 

 proportion are lost for ever. 



You must lay it down as an absolute rule that the bird is to be 

 entirely skinned, otherwise you can never succeed in forming a true and 

 pleasing specimen. 



You will allow this to be just, after reflecting a moment on the nature 

 of the fleshy parts and tendons, which are often left in. First, they 

 require to be well seasoned with aromatic spices ; secondly, they must 

 be put into the oven to dry ; thirdly, the beat of the fire, and the 

 natural tendency all cured flesh has to shrink and become hard, render 

 the specimen withered, distorted, and too small; fourthly, the inside 

 then becomes like a ham or any other dried meat. Ere long the insects 

 claim it as their own, the feathers begin to drop off, and you have the 

 hideous spectacle of death in ragged plumage. 



Wire is of no manner of use, but, on the contrary, a great nuisance, 

 for, when it is introduced, a disagreeable stiffness and disarrangement 

 of symmetry follow. 



The head and neck can be placed in any attitude; the body supported, 

 the wings closed, extended, or elevated ; the tail depressed, raised, or 

 expanded ; the thighs set horizontal, or oblique, without any aid from 

 wire. Cotton will effect all this. 



A very small proportion of the skull bone — say from the fore part of 

 the eyes to the bill — is to be left in, though even this is not absolutely 

 necessary. Part of the wing bones, the jaw bones, and half the thigh 

 bones remain. Everything else — flesh, fat, ejes, bones, brain and 

 tendons— are all to be taken away. •» 



While dissecting, it will be of use to keep in mind that, in taking off 

 the skin from the body, by means of your fingers and a little knife, you 

 jnust try to shove it, in lieu of pulling it, lest you stretch it. 



